Superquinn is an Irish

Republic of Ireland

Ireland , described as the Republic of Ireland , is a sovereign state in Europe occupying approximately five-sixths of the island of the same name. Its capital is Dublin. Ireland, which had a population of 4.58 million in 2011, is a constitutional republic governed as a parliamentary democracy,...

 supermarket

Supermarket

A supermarket, a form of grocery store, is a self-service store offering a wide variety of food and household merchandise, organized into departments...

 chain. Until 2005, the company was entirely privately held by the Quinn family. It is now a subsidiary of Select Retail Holdings Limited

Select Retail Holdings Limited

Select Retail Holdings Limited is an Irish property buying consortium. The company was registered for business in Republic of Ireland in 2002 and purchased Irish supermarket chain Superquinn in January 2005.-Members September 2008:...

.

A receiver was appointed to the company on July 18th 2011, the next day the company was bought by The Musgrave Group plc

Musgrave Group

The Musgrave Group is a major Irish food wholesaler, founded in Cork by the Musgrave brothers, Thomas and Stuart in 1876. Musgrave Group has become Ireland's largest grocery distributor. Today, the Group has operations in Ireland, United Kingdom and Spain. Musgrave is the largest private company in...

 for an undisclosed sum.

Products and services

The company operates 20 supermarkets under the Superquinn brand and 4 convenience stores under the "Superquinn Select" brand. It has three levels of own brand products of increasing quality; "Euro Shopper", "Superquinn" and "Superior Quality", however, the Euroshopper brand is currently being replaced by "Superquinn Essentials", their low cost, but still high quality, own brand products. Superquinn is known for having a very high level of customer service compared to other supermarket chains, its former owner having written a manual on customer service, "Crowning the Customer". It is also known for having introduced a number of innovations, including Ireland's first supermarket loyalty cardin 1993, SuperClub re branded in 2007 as Reward Card. It also introduced self-scanning of goods by customers in a number of its outlets (Reward Card SuperScan). Superquinn is known as one of the better retail grocery companies to work for.

Superquinn is part of an Irish Internet shopping portal Buy4Now, which provides Internet shopping services for a number of Irish retail

Retail

Retail consists of the sale of physical goods or merchandise from a fixed location, such as a department store, boutique or kiosk, or by mail, in small or individual lots for direct consumption by the purchaser. Retailing may include subordinated services, such as delivery. Purchasers may be...

ers.

History

The business was founded in 1960 as 'Quinns Supermarkets' in Dundalk

Dundalk

Dundalk is the county town of County Louth in Ireland. It is situated where the Castletown River flows into Dundalk Bay. The town is close to the border with Northern Ireland and equi-distant from Dublin and Belfast. The town's name, which was historically written as Dundalgan, has associations...

 by Feargal Quinn

Feargal Quinn

Feargal Quinn is an Irish politician, businessman, television personality and an independent member of Seanad Éireann.-Early and personal life:...

, and the company headquarters were later moved to Sutton, Dublin

Sutton, Dublin

Sutton is a residential suburb of Dublin's Northside, Ireland, at the base of Howth Head, the peninsula which forms the northern edge of Dublin Bay.-Location and geography:...

. The trading name was subsequently changed to Superquinn, in part to differentiate it from rival Quinnsworth

Quinnsworth

Quinnsworth was a supermarket company in the Republic of Ireland, that was founded by the entrepreneur Pat Quinn.-History:Quinnsworth was founded by Pat Quinn in 1966 and was sold to Powers Supermarkets Limited in the 1970s. During the 1970s, the slogan used was "Let's get it all together at...

, which had started in the early 1970s.

In 1991, Feargal's son Eamonn Quinn took a key management role as deputy chairman.

In January 2005, it was announced that Superquinn was to be sold to a consortium called Select Retail Holdings. On 26 August 2005 it was announced that the sale had been completed. Simon Burke replaced Feargal Quinn as Executive Chairman of the company, with Quinn becoming non-executive President of the business. Eamonn Quinn has left the company.

In January 2009, the company made the decision to close the Dundalk store. This was the second time Superquinn had failed in Dundalk, but in September 2010 a High Court order forced Superquinn to re-open in its home town again.

Expansion

In February 2007 Superquinn purchased the Montrose Hotel in Donnybrook from Jury's Doyle for €40 million and plans to develop the site as a supermarket and apartments. Superquinn has been expanding since the SRH takeover. It has opened stores in Rathborne, Ranelagh and Portlaoise and plans to open stores in Clongriffin, Rathgar, Heuston South Quarter and Kilmainham.

In early 2010 it was confirmed that the Heuston South Quarter store was on schedule for a planned opening in October 2010.

Superquinn Heuston South Quarter opened for business on October 14, 2010.

The planned Clongriffin opening date is uncertain. The Sunday Times

The Sunday Times

The Sunday Times is a British Sunday newspaper.The Sunday Times may also refer to:*The Sunday Times *The Sunday Times *The Sunday Times *The Sunday Times...

Home section reported in May 2010 that the store is on hold, with Superquinn quoting that they are "not yet in a position to confirm a likely opening date for a store in Clongriffin". Residents of Clongriffin and surrounding neighbourhoods now fear the planned opening will not transpire. They have set up an online petition and Facebook page to build support for the opening in an effort to show Superquinn that the Clongriffin store is a viable business opportunity.

On 3 September 2008, The Irish Times

The Irish Times

The Irish Times is an Irish daily broadsheet newspaper launched on 29 March 1859. The editor is Kevin O'Sullivan who succeeded Geraldine Kennedy in 2011; the deputy editor is Paul O'Neill. The Irish Times is considered to be Ireland's newspaper of record, and is published every day except Sundays...

reported that a number of approaches had been made to buy Superquinn, including from BWG Foods

BWG Foods

BWG Foods Ltd is an Irish wholesaler and retail grocery franchise operator.BWG is the second largest wholesaler in the Republic of Ireland in terms of sales, after Musgrave Group, with sales of over 1.7 billion euro annually...

 Limited, The Musgrave Group plc

Musgrave Group

The Musgrave Group is a major Irish food wholesaler, founded in Cork by the Musgrave brothers, Thomas and Stuart in 1876. Musgrave Group has become Ireland's largest grocery distributor. Today, the Group has operations in Ireland, United Kingdom and Spain. Musgrave is the largest private company in...

, J Sainsbury

J Sainsbury

J. Sainsbury plc is the parent company of Sainsbury's Supermarkets Ltd, commonly known as Sainsbury's, the third largest chain of supermarkets in the United Kingdom with a share of the UK supermarket sector of 16.5%....

 plc, and Asda Stores Limited

Asda

Asda Stores Ltd is a British supermarket chain which retails food, clothing, general merchandise, toys and financial services. It also has a mobile telephone network, , Asda Mobile...

. However later that day Simon Burke told RTÉ News and Current Affairs that the company was not for sale.

Failed Ventures

The company's innovations have not all become successful. One side effort of the company was the failed bank

Bank

A bank is a financial institution that serves as a financial intermediary. The term "bank" may refer to one of several related types of entities:...

 Tusa (the Irish word

Irish language

Irish , also known as Irish Gaelic, is a Goidelic language of the Indo-European language family, originating in Ireland and historically spoken by the Irish people. Irish is now spoken as a first language by a minority of Irish people, as well as being a second language of a larger proportion of...

 for you

You

You is the second-personpersonal pronoun, both singular and plural, and both nominative and objective case, in Modern English. The oblique/objective form you functioned originally as both accusative and dative)...

), a joint venture with TSB Bank (now part of Permanent TSB). A joint venture with Texaco

Texaco

Texaco is the name of an American oil retail brand. Its flagship product is its fuel "Texaco with Techron". It also owns the Havoline motor oil brand....

 to introduce small Superquinn convenience stores at petrol forecourts, SuperQ, also failed.

Perhaps more importantly for the company has been its failure to expand - Superquinn has less than a third of the branches of its other full-service rivals, Tesco Ireland

Tesco Ireland

Tesco Ireland is the Irish arm of supermarket group Tesco. It was formed in Tesco plc's 1997 takeover of the Irish retailing operations of Associated British Foods, namely Powers' Supermarkets Limited and its subsidiaries, trading as Quinnsworth and Crazy Prices.Tesco operates supermarkets under...

 and Dunnes Stores

Dunnes Stores

Dunnes Stores, also known as Dunnes, is a supermarket and clothing retail chain, that is based in Dublin, Ireland.The chain primarily sells food, clothes and household wares. In addition to its main customer base in Ireland, the chain has operations in Great Britain and Spain...

, and is now even eclipsed by discount stores Aldi

ALDI

ALDI Einkauf GmbH & Co. oHG, doing business as ', short for "Albrecht Discount", is a discount supermarket chain based in Germany...

 and Lidl

Lidl

Lidl is a discount supermarket chain based in Germany that operates over 7,200 stores across Europe. The company's full name is Lidl Stiftung & Co. KG...

, who have been very aggressive in acquiring sites compared to Superquinn. Its stores are also heavily located in the Dublin and Leinster

Leinster

Leinster is one of the Provinces of Ireland situated in the east of Ireland. It comprises the ancient Kingdoms of Mide, Osraige and Leinster. Following the Norman invasion of Ireland, the historic fifths of Leinster and Mide gradually merged, mainly due to the impact of the Pale, which straddled...

 areas (with 3 stores in Munster

Munster

Munster is one of the Provinces of Ireland situated in the south of Ireland. In Ancient Ireland, it was one of the fifths ruled by a "king of over-kings" . Following the Norman invasion of Ireland, the ancient kingdoms were shired into a number of counties for administrative and judicial purposes...

, and none at all in Connacht

Connacht

Connacht , formerly anglicised as Connaught, is one of the Provinces of Ireland situated in the west of Ireland. In Ancient Ireland, it was one of the fifths ruled by a "king of over-kings" . Following the Norman invasion of Ireland, the ancient kingdoms were shired into a number of counties for...

 or Ulster

Ulster

Ulster is one of the four provinces of Ireland, located in the north of the island. In ancient Ireland, it was one of the fifths ruled by a "king of over-kings" . Following the Norman invasion of Ireland, the ancient kingdoms were shired into a number of counties for administrative and judicial...

) in contrast to the other operators which operate nationwide.

Receivership and Sale

On 18 July 2011, it was announced that receivers had been appointed to the Superquinn chain. This was triggered by a consortium

Consortium

A consortium is an association of two or more individuals, companies, organizations or governments with the objective of participating in a common activity or pooling their resources for achieving a common goal....

 of banks believed to be owed around €400m. On 19 July 2011, the chain was reported to have been sold to wholesale group Musgrave Group

Musgrave Group

The Musgrave Group is a major Irish food wholesaler, founded in Cork by the Musgrave brothers, Thomas and Stuart in 1876. Musgrave Group has become Ireland's largest grocery distributor. Today, the Group has operations in Ireland, United Kingdom and Spain. Musgrave is the largest private company in...

 for just over €100m. Staff were informed that there would be no change to their terms and conditions, or their pensions under the takeover by Musgrave.

The Irish Times reported on 23 July 2011 that two high court actions had been initiated to challenge the receivership

Receivership

In law, receivership is the situation in which an institution or enterprise is being held by a receiver, a person "placed in the custodial responsibility for the property of others, including tangible and intangible assets and rights." The receivership remedy is an equitable remedy that emerged in...

 and instead place the business in examinership

Examinership

Examinership is a process in Irish law whereby the protection of the Court is obtained to assist the survival of a company. It allows a company to restructure with the approval of the High Court....

. Lithuania

Lithuania

Lithuania , officially the Republic of Lithuania is a country in Northern Europe, the biggest of the three Baltic states. It is situated along the southeastern shore of the Baltic Sea, whereby to the west lie Sweden and Denmark...

n VP Group was named as a possible bidder for the company.

On 27 July 2011, RTÉ

RTE

RTÉ is the abbreviation for Raidió Teilifís Éireann, the public broadcasting service of the Republic of Ireland.RTE may also refer to:* Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, 25th Prime Minister of Turkey...

reported that the petition for examinership had been withdrawn, allowing the proposed buyout to proceed. Musgrave are to provide a €10 million fund to benefit suppliers owed money by Superquinn.